However, the government plans to eradicate only 10,900 hectares of coca, reducing the area under cultivation to 20,000. This, according to reports, is due to an agreement made by the government to let the farmers of the coca growing region of Chapare harvest a certain amount of the crop.

The government will purchase and dispose of the remaining 4,000 hectares-worth.

A report to be released September 10, will, according to Caceres, provide a comprehensive study of the coca leaf in Bolivia and determine how much coca should legally be grown.

The Bolivian government has renounced the UN’s Convention on Narcotic Drugs because of its classification of the coca leaf as an illicit substance, arguing that the chewing of coca leaves is an ancient practice among the country’s indigenous population.

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